Law practice is increasingly specialized, and Vanderbilt offers several well-established upper-level tracks that allow students to gain in-depth exposure to fast-evolving technical and complex areas of law.

Stay Connected

Vanderbilt’s Career Services program provides students with the resources and support they need to assess their strengths, explore career options, refine their career goals and launch successful legal careers.

Get Connected

Most students find it important to balance the demands of legal studies by joining one or more organizations for professional advancement, personal development, community service and professional networking.

In 2002, Ray Krone was the 100th death row inmate to be exonerated as a result of DNA evidence. He was released after serving more than a decade in prison. An Air Force veteran, Krone was arrested on Dec. 31, 1991 for the murder of Kim Ancona, the manager of a bar that sponsored some of Krone’s intramural sports teams. The case against him was based largely on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of an “expert” witness, later discredited, who claimed bite marks found on the victim matched Krone’s teeth. He was sentenced to death in 1992.

The CJP welcomed Bryce Coatney, senior counsel with the Tennessee Department of Correction, who is responsible for handling inmates with severe and chronic mental illness; Judge Dan Eisenstein, who presided over Davidson County's Mental Health Court; and Assistant District Attorney Katie Ladefoged, who handles cases in the Mental Health Court for the District Attorney's Office. This panel of experts shared their experiences with and perspectives on how the criminal justice system handles mental health issues and how that handling may be improved. Moderated by Professor Christopher Slobogin.

My Fight for Freedom & Justice: Prosecution for My Brother's Crimes - Robert Blagojevich, brother of the ill-fated former Gov. of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, shared his side of the story in the United States of America v. Rod Blagojevich and Robert Blagojevich in which Robert was wrongly indicted for crimes he did not commit, and pressed hard by federal investigators to flip against his brother—all revealed in his new book Fundraiser A: My Fight for Freedom and Justice.

Hyatt Fund Event: A Conversation on Guantanamo -- Law, Psychology, and Ethics of Torture - A discussion with Brigadier General (retired) Stephen Xenakis, M.D. and Colonel (retired) Bill Lietzau, moderated by Professor Michael Newton. As terrorism continues to evolve and the world scrambles to respond, the Guantanamo Bay detention center remains a symbol of the challenges this struggle entails. Because the United States is a leader in the fight against terrorism, the world is watching how our nation handles the detention and prosecution of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo. Dr. Xenakis and Mr. Lietzau have worked extensively on the legal, psychological, and ethical issues surrounding Guantanamo.

Sentencing Reform: A Debate - On October 1, U.S. Charles Senator Grassley and a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, which would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders and grant judges more discretion in determining sentences for certain offenders. Proponents of the legislation argue that current sentencing guidelines are overly rigid and often impose punishments that do not fit the crime, while detractors insist that our sentencing regime is responsible for the drop-off in crime that has occurred over the last several decades.

Scholar and activist, Christopher Petrella, spoke to the VLS community mapping the history and current state of for-profit prisons in the U.S and discusses the relationship between race and prison privatization in the U.S.

Hyatt Fund Event: Government Surveillance in the 21st Century

Arjun Sethi, policy director at Sikh Coalition and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, explored the intersection of contemporary surveillance practices with the need to safeguard civil liberties. His talk addressed the expansion of government surveillance following the attacks of 9/11, the implications of new law enforcement technologies on civil liberty protections, the impact on minority communities and the right to privacy in an increasingly cyber- and technology-oriented world.

Evaluating the Role of Social Justice in Criminal Investigations and Procedure: A conversation with Judge Andre Davis of the Fourth Circuit

Zachary Fardon ’92 (BA’88) was confirmed as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in October 2013. His appointment gained the unanimous approval of the U.S. Senate and was announced in statement from U.S. Senators Mark Kirk and Richard Durbin.

"Wrongful Convictions and What Lawyers Can Do About Them" (co-sponsored with Social Justice) - A talk featuring Nina Morrison, Senior Staff Attorney, The Innocence Project

"Death, Desuetude, and Original Meaning" - John Stinneford, University of Florida Law School, faculty workshop

"Social Justice: A Mixed Theory of Punishment" - Joseph Kennedy, University of North Carolina, faculty workshop

The Criminal Law Society and the Criminal Justice Program sponsored a panel on jobs in criminal justice - The Program is also facilitated a Law-for-Prisoners initiative in which Vanderbilt students taught criminal and civil law to prisoners at the state prison at Riverside.

Bradley MacLean discussed the clemency case of Abu Ali Abdur'Rahman, currently on death row - A presentation for students and faculty

Reed Brodsky '95 discussed insider trading and the cases of U.S. v. Raj Rajaratnam and U.S. v Rajat Gupta (which he helped prosecute) -View a slideshow of the event

"The German International Criminal Code and the Principles of Participation and Accountability to the International Community" - Maximo Langer, UCLA Law School, faculty workshop

"Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure" - Jody Madeira, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, presented research from her new book

Criminal Justice Rountable on Reducing the Criminal Justice System's Reliance on Incarceration - Vanderbilt University Law School's Criminal Justice Program was asked by the ABA to sponsor a roundtable to discuss policies surrounding the criminal justice system's reliance on incarceration and how they, or some variant of them, might be implemented in the state of Tennessee. Similar roundtables took place in ten other states. The roundtables brought together key policymakers and participants in the criminal justice system to start a dialogue about these policies. The ultimate goal was to provide information on successful criminal justice programs to those who can help get them started and to set up a mechanism for promoting them.

Perseverance: The Long Fight to Free an Innocent Man from Tennessee's Death Row - Featuring exoneree Ndume Olatushani and his lawyer, Anne-Marie Moyes '02

"Why Comply with International Law?" - A talk by Shima Baradaran, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University Law School

Criminal Justice Roundtable on Responses to 9-11 - Participants included: Diane Marie Amann (Georgia Law School); Norman Abrams (UCLA School of Law); Robert Chesney (University of Texas School of Law); Monica Hakimi (University of Michigan Law School); Peter Marguilies (Roger Williams University School of Law); Deborah Pearlstein (Princeton University); Harvey Rishikof (National War College); Stephen Vladeck (American University College of Law); Matthew Waxman (Columbia Law School); Benjamin Wittes (Brookings Institution), and members of Vanderbilt's criminal justice and international law faculty. Co-sponsored with the International Legal Studies Program.

Habeas for the 21st Century released in March 2011 by University of Chicago Press - A discussion of Nancy King's new book, Habeas for the Twenty-First Century: Uses, Abuses and the Future of the Great Writ (University of Chicago Press), coauthored with Joseph Hoffmann, featured comments from Professor King, Vanderbilt's Lee S. & Charles A. Speir Professor of Law, Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law at NYU Law School, and Judge William H. Pryor, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Professor Hoffmann, the Harry Pratter Professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, responded to the comments.

"Wrongly Convicted: An Exoneree, His Lawyer, and Tales from the Front Lines of the Innocence Revolution," - Nina Morrison, staff attorney, Innocence Project, and John Restivo, an exoneree, gave a talk about wrongful convictions and the work of the Innocence Project. View a slideshow of pictures from the event.

"Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong" - Workshop by Brandon L. Garrett, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School.

“Culture and Risk: Is Nanotechnology Different? How About Synthetic Biology?” - Workshop by Dan M. Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law at Yale Law School.

“The Future of the Death Penalty” - Ten experts on the death penalty, including representatives from the legal system, the correctional system, victims' organizations, religious organizations, and advocacy groups gathered for this panel. Christopher Slobogin, Milton Underwood Professor of Law, Vanderbilt, played the role of governor of a new state considering whether to adopt the death penalty and questioned panelists about their views.

“Roundtable on the American Bar Association's draft revisions of the Prosecution and defense Function Standards” - The American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section chose Vanderbilt as one of six schools to co-sponsor a roundtable devoted to soliciting input from members of the local bar on a draft revision of important standards including the right to jury trial, discovery and sentencing.

"Guantanamo Bay: Discussion of Current Issues and the Way Forward” (co-sponsored with International Legal Studies Program) - The detention center at Guantanamo Bay has spurred a tremendous amount of litigation, with a number of cases ending up in the United States Supreme Court. This panel examined topics including the relevance of international law and treaties to American jurisprudence, the scope of preventive detention, the rights of enemy combatants, and the habeas jurisdiction of the federal courts.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces - The Court heard arguments in one case, United States v. Durbin, which involved the issue of a Military Rule of Evidence 504 claim of spousal privilege in the context of a Air Force court-martial proceeding for possession of child pornography. The Appellate Litigation Clinic appeared as amicus curiae in support of Technical Sergeant Durbin, and one clinic student argued before the Court.